Beach Ride (2 page)

Lisa always enjoyed showing new riders around Pine Hollow and introducing them to the stable’s many traditions. One of the stable’s traditions was that old riders showed new ones around. Another was that everybody worked. Traditions like these helped keep costs down for everybody, and the riders’ parents liked that a lot.

“This is Barq, the horse I’m riding today,” Lisa said. She opened the stall door and took the reins of the bay with a jagged white streak running down his face. “Barq is part Arabian, and his name means ‘lightning’ in Arabian. Isn’t that neat?”

“Yes,” Alice agreed. “He’s a beauty, too.” Lisa watched while Alice introduced herself to Barq, rubbing his soft nose gently. Lisa approved. This girl definitely knew about horses.

“Are you staying for the jump class?” Lisa asked.

“Oh, no,” Alice said quickly.

“It’s right after the flat class,” said Lisa. “Max is just going to go over some basic techniques for about fifteen minutes.”

“No, I can’t,” said Alice.

Lisa was surprised by how quickly Alice had said no. Maybe Alice was worried about how much it
would cost to stay for a second class, or she was concerned that her jumping ability wouldn’t be the same as the other students’ in the class. Lisa decided she could set Alice’s mind at ease on both those points. She could even do it diplomatically.

“The nice thing about the jump class today is that because it’s going to be short, Max isn’t even charging anybody for it. Also, one of our traditions here is that people of all levels work together in classes. Carole, who is really good, takes the same jump class that I do. You’ll fit in. I’m sure.”

“Thanks anyway,” Alice said.

Lisa had the feeling a door had just been closed in her face, politely but firmly. She didn’t have time right then to figure out what had happened, but she wasn’t about to just let it drop. One thing she was sure of was that Alice would love Max’s jump classes. He made them so much fun that Lisa and her friends rarely realized how hard they worked and how much they learned. Also, jumping was so much fun that it would help keep Alice’s mind off her troubles.

As soon as class started, Lisa knew that she was right about Alice’s skills. The girl definitely knew what she was doing on a horse. Comanche behaved perfectly. That, as much as anything, was an indication of how good a rider Alice was. Comanche was a
great horse, but he had an independent streak that made him a bad choice for an inexperienced rider. A good rider, like Alice, knew how to explain to the horse exactly which one of them was in charge. Comanche wasn’t questioning that. Alice was in charge.

Max had the class working on balance techniques. It wasn’t easy. They had to ride without stirrups and sometimes even with their arms crossed, directing their horses simply with leg movements. One of the things Lisa had realized early in her riding lessons was how important balance was. A horse relied on the rider’s balance to convey information. When a rider bounced around in the saddle, it could confuse the horse. She concentrated on improving her technique.

When the class was over, Max called for a five-minute cool-down period before the short jump class began. Most of the riders were staying for the jump class and took those five minutes to circle the schooling ring at a walk and let their horses relax.

Lisa saw Alice head for the exit. She wished Alice would stay for the class—maybe if she tried reassuring her one more time … Lisa gave Barq a little kick and hurried over to her new friend.

“You can stay, you know,” Lisa said.

“No,” Alice said. “I have to go.”

Lisa tried again. “Some of the riders are new jumpers. Some are pretty experienced, just like in the flat class. We all just work together.…”

“I don’t jump,” Alice said flatly. She clearly didn’t want to discuss it any further.

“Will you be at the next class on Saturday?” Lisa asked.

“Sure,” Alice said. “I already told my grandmother about it. She’ll get me here on time.”

“See you then,” Lisa said. “And it was nice meeting you.”

“Nice meeting you, too. And, thanks for the help.”

Alice dismounted and walked Comanche into the stabling area. As she walked off, Lisa wondered what she might have done to convince Alice to join the jump class. Then she decided she’d done everything she could have done by herself. But perhaps three heads would be better than one. Perhaps she could enlist the help of The Saddle Club. She knew her friends would agree that jumping could be the perfect antidote to Alice’s unhappy family situation.

“Are you joining us?” Max asked sarcastically, bringing Lisa out of her thoughts.

Lisa glanced at her watch. It was exactly five minutes
and three seconds since Max had announced a five-minute cool-down. That man could sure be specific when it came to class times!

Fifteen minutes and three seconds later, Stevie, Carole, and Lisa made a plan for a Saddle Club meeting. They often gathered after class at TD’s—an ice-cream place at the nearby shopping center. Inside the stable Lisa noticed that Comanche had been untacked and groomed and there was no sign of Alice. As she walked with her friends to TD’s, she told them about the new girl.

“She seemed awfully nice, but a little shy,” Stevie said. Compared to Stevie, everybody in the world was shy.

“Her parents might be getting a divorce or something,” Lisa said. “It wasn’t too clear, but it sounds like it’s bad news. She’s here visiting her grandmother for vacation.”

“Well,” Carole said, “at least she’s able to ride. Riding is always a good thing to do when times are tough.” Her friends were aware that Carole knew what she was talking about. Her mother had died a few years earlier, and she’d often found comfort in being able to ride.

Then Lisa told her friends about how Alice seemed to be afraid of jumping.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Stevie said. “She’s a really good rider. Of course she can jump!”

“Something’s keeping her from it,” Lisa said. “And I’d like to know what it is.”

“Me, too,” Stevie said.

“Well, we’re not going to find out here,” Carole said, opening the door to TD’s. “So we might as well get down to the serious business of ordering our sundaes.” She led the way to their favorite table in the back of the restaurant, and the three of them slipped into their usual seats. Carole and Lisa each picked up a menu to study the options. Stevie seemed to know exactly what she wanted already.

That made Carole and Lisa a little nervous. Stevie was well-known for ordering very outrageous combinations. Her friends suspected she did it so nobody would want to take tastes of her sundaes. It also had something to do with trying to shock the waitress. It was a game they played. Stevie usually managed to win it.

“Who is it you’re staying with in Florida?” Lisa asked Carole when she’d made up her mind.

“Dad’s sister, Joanna,” Carole said. “Then there’s an Uncle Willie, and I have a cousin as well. Her name is Sheila. She’s sixteen years old.”

“Isn’t she a rider, too?” Stevie said. She was crinkling
her brows, trying to recall exactly what Carole had said. When it came to horses, she usually had a pretty good memory.

“She’s got a pony,” Carole reminded Stevie. “She’s had him for years, and she rides him every day. She’s as horse crazy as we are. It’s one of the reasons I love her a lot. Also, like me, she wants to work with horses when she finishes school. The difference between us is that she’s decided exactly what she wants to do already. She wants to be a trainer.” Carole’s friends knew that Carole couldn’t make up her mind whether she wanted to be a trainer, instructor, breeder, show rider, owner, or veterinarian. At the moment, she wanted to be all of them.

“Well, if she rides, won’t you get to ride, too?” Lisa asked.

“I don’t know,” Carole said. “That’s what I was thinking about before class. When you’re visiting other people, you really have to do what they want to do. I’m not sure Sheila’s going to want to ride while I’m there, though I hope she will. Besides, she only has one horse and it’s a
pony
,” Carole added. “It’s a little pony, and my cousin is big.”

“Does she hurt the pony?” Lisa asked, concerned.

“Oh, no,” Carole said. “It’s a strong pony, and she’s
not all that big, just regular sixteen-year-old size. But if she wants to succeed in competitions, she ought to have a regular-size horse.”

“Does she want to succeed?” Stevie asked. It was hard to imagine that anybody wouldn’t want to win prizes, but then she remembered that the girls had a friend named Kate Devine who had won a lot of prizes in horse shows and then decided she didn’t want to compete anymore. She just wanted to ride. Maybe that was what this Sheila wanted, too.

“I’m not sure,” Carole said. “I do know that she loves this pony so much that she’s willing to do poorly in the shows because of it.”

That sounded very odd to Stevie and Lisa.

“Not wanting to compete is one thing,” Lisa said. “Wanting to lose is another altogether.”

“Crazy,” Stevie observed. “Plain crazy.” Then her eyes lit up in a way her friends recognized. It meant a light bulb had just gone on. Stevie had an idea. “That’s it!” she declared. “You’ll be the perfect person to talk her into getting a new horse, Carole. All you have to do is explain what’s going to happen.”

“I’ve thought about that,” Carole admitted. “But maybe it’s not really my business what horse she rides.
Besides, she loves that pony, and she always has a good time riding it. What good would it do to have her give up the pony she loves for a horse she doesn’t love, just to win ribbons?”

“Maybe she should have two horses,” Stevie suggested. She was good at compromises, especially when it involved spending other people’s money!

“And maybe pigs should fly,” Lisa said wistfully. To her, owning one horse seemed like such a distant dream that she couldn’t imagine owning two.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the waitress. “You girls ready to order?” The waitress asked all of them, but she was looking at Stevie.

“Vanilla frozen yogurt,” Carole said.

“Small hot fudge on chocolate ice cream,” Lisa said.

The waitress wrote down their orders, but never took her eyes off Stevie. It was part of the challenge. Everybody there knew it. Would Stevie be able to come up with something so outrageous that the waitress would make a face?

Stevie took a deep breath.

“One scoop of Oreo cream, one of pistachio. Hot butterscotch. Pineapple topping. Each on both.
Whipped cream. Walnuts. Maraschino cherries. One on each.”

The waitress wrote busily. Her face was stony.

“Oh, and can I have that chewy blueberry granola topping, too?”

The waitress’s jaw dropped.

Stevie had won.

“D
O YOU KNOW
what Aunt Joanna has planned for us this week?” Carole asked her father.

The two of them were sitting in their comfortable seats on the airplane. It was Saturday morning, and the plane was beginning its descent into the Florida airport, where their vacation awaited them.

“If I know my sister, whatever it is, it involves trying to introduce me to a very eligible woman,” Colonel Hanson said, sighing with resignation.

“She’s been trying to marry you off to one of her friends ever since Mom died,” Carole said. “She’s relentless, isn’t she?”

“Absolutely. Every time I’ve seen her in the past
few years, we’ve somehow managed to run into a couple of her single friends.”

“Is it embarrassing?”

“Not really. I suppose it’s flattering, but it never seems to work out.”

“Why don’t you just tell Aunt Joanna to stop?” Carole asked. “You can find your own dates. I mean, it seems to me that you go out a couple of times a week at home without any help from her at all.”

“I wouldn’t want to interfere,” Colonel Hanson explained. “She’s having too much fun trying to fix me up.”

“And what about Mrs. Dana?” she asked. Mrs. Dana was the mother of a girl Carole had befriended and helped. Her father and Mrs. Dana had seen a lot of one another since Carole introduced them. Carole liked her. Apparently her father did, too.

“I’m seeing her after we get back,” Colonel Hanson said. “I’ve got tickets to a Beach Boys concert. She’s almost as crazy about golden oldies as I am.”

“Well, I’ll tell you what,” Carole said. “Every time Aunt Joanna tries to push one of her ever-so-slightly weird friends on you, I’ll talk about Mrs. Dana. Is that a deal?”

“Deal,” her father said. They shook on it. “But don’t expect it to stop Joanna from trying.”

Carole knew that was true. Her aunt could be very persistent when she decided to meddle. It wasn’t Carole’s favorite side of the woman.

A few hours later Carole found herself appreciating one of Aunt Joanna’s better sides. Carole was standing in Aunt Joanna’s kitchen, next to her cousin, Sheila. The two of them were taking turns using the food processor to make cole slaw. Carole was on cabbage, Sheila in charge of carrots. Aunt Joanna had orchestrated an entire work crew, including the girls, Colonel Hanson, and Uncle Willie. Everybody had a job; everybody was enjoying the work.

“Where’s your dill weed, Joanna?” Colonel Hanson asked. “I can’t make a marinade for the shrimp without dill weed.”